Alex and Scott hopped up onto the bed next to me, while Gareth and Dorian grabbed chairs from along the wall. Peter stood at the foot of the bed, blinking and shifting from one foot to another. I knew from our conversation earlier in the week that he was twenty-nine, but in that moment he seemed much younger.
“I wanted your advice about something,” he began, his cheeks flushed. “It’s Sir’s birthday soon. He’s going to be fifty-nine, and I wanted to do something special for his birthday.”
“And you want suggestions?” I said.
He nodded. “The thing is, I’ve been trying to visit the club more, to share his life here.” There were nods from Alex and Scott: clearly they’d noticed. “The guys are right, that was a fantastic scene, but doing something like that, it’s just not me.” His gaze met mine. “One day I’ll tell you my story, okay?” I nodded. There was something about Peter that tugged at me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I really liked him.
“I want to do something for Sir, but here, at the club,” Peter said at last. He glanced at us. “You all do scenes with your masters, and you make them so proud of you. I want….” He took a deep breath. “I want to show him how much I love him, to show him how much I’ve grown, how much I’ve changed. Because that’s all down to him.” He swallowed.
Alex was off the bed in a flash and at Peter’s side, holding him tight in a fierce hug. Next to me, Scott wiped his eyes. All of a sudden I ached to know what had happened in Peter’s life, because it had obviously been momentous, judging by the reactions of his friends.
Gareth was leaning forward, hands clasped between his knees. “So… you want to do something at the club, that’s not a scene, but that
is
you stepping out of your comfort zone.”
Peter nodded. “Exactly.”
“Well….” Gareth drew out the syllable. “I do have an idea.” All heads turned in his direction, and he grinned. “Why don’t you do a lap dance for him? In the group room?”
Peter’s jaw dropped. “A lap dance? But… I can’t….” His mouth snapped shut.
Gareth nodded. “Yeah, you can. I’d show you. It wouldn’t have to be a long dance, just the length of one song.” There was that grin again. “Nothing like the three songs
I
get to do at the club.”
Scott leaned against me and whispered, “Gareth’s a pole dancer and stripper at a gay strip club around the corner.”
Peter was still looking shell-shocked. “Dance?”
Gareth smiled. “Dance, strip, whatever you want.”
Peter shook his head. “I couldn’t… not on my own.”
“Well, who says you have to do it on your own?” Scott interjected. “We could do it with you.” His eyes glittered. “Hey, that’s a great idea! We’d be like your backing group.” He beamed at Alex. “What about it, beanpole?”
Alex snorted. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” Then he glanced at Peter, and his expression softened. “Okay, I’d do it. But only for you, right?”
“Yay!” Scott was bouncing again. “What about you, Dorian? You’re not exactly the shy type.” Then his face fell. “Hang on. I wasn’t thinking. If you didn’t want to, we’d get it, okay?”
Dorian gazed at him thoughtfully. “You know what? I think it’s a great idea.” He breathed in deeply. “Count me in.”
Alex let go of Peter and put his arm around Dorian’s shoulders. “You rock, you know that?” he said with a squeeze. He looked at the others. “I’m pretty sure Pietro would be in on it. I’ll ask him at work.” He turned back to Peter. “Well?”
Peter glanced at the eager faces around him and gave a slow nod. “Okay. Let’s do it.” Whoops and cheers accompanied his words. Peter gave a nervous laugh. “I must need my head examined.”
Alex bit his lip. “There’s only one problem.”
Gareth was nodding. “I wonder if you and I are thinking the same thing. We’re gonna need to rehearse, but we don’t want a word of this getting out. It has to be a big surprise. That means no telling our partners.”
“So we can’t rehearse here,” Alex said with a gloomy air. “Where does that leave us?”
The words almost bubbled up out of me. “I know where you can rehearse.”
Everyone turned to face me.
I nodded, smiling. “I have a house. As long as you could all get there, there’s plenty of space.”
Peter sighed. “Look, that’s a lovely gesture, Jarod, and thank you, but it’s not going to work. We’d need more than one rehearsal, for one thing, and if we do that, one of our other halves is bound to get suspicious.”
“I could work it out ahead of time,” Gareth suggested. “Just a few moves. We’re aiming for sexy, not complicated. We could probably get it memorized if we had one really good rehearsal.”
I thought quickly. “What if you had a whole afternoon and night to rehearse in?”
“What are you thinking?” Scott asked.
“Well, what if we organized a slumber party at my house? That way, you’d have a lot of time to work on it, and a legitimate reason to be there.”
Alex snorted. “Aren’t we a bit old for slumber parties?”
“Then say I’m organizing it to get to know my fellow subs,” I suggested. “A sort of bonding session. Would they buy that?”
“They might,” Peter said slowly. His gaze met mine. “You sure about this? What would you tell Master Eli?”
I shrugged. “The same thing you’d tell your Sirs. He can’t know, either.” It didn’t feel right, deceiving him, but it was in a good cause. “How long do we have?” The end of March was in sight. “We’ll need to sort out a date to give you time to plan, especially if we’re fitting this around days off, et cetera.”
“Okay.” Peter was looking more and more confident. “Let’s all swap phone numbers, and we can text about this. Then once we’ve sorted out a date, we can tell our Sirs. They shouldn’t mind,” he said hopefully. He regarded me with a speculative glance. “You sure you’re okay with this?”
I nodded. “Anything to help.” Being able to provide them with a rehearsal space made me feel really good. And I wasn’t lying: it would be a time to bond with them.
I didn’t think Eli would mind.
Eli
I TOOK
advantage of Thomas’s and Leo’s absence to get a drink from the bar. Now that the scene was over, I wanted a cold beer. Ben proved himself to be a mind reader when I glanced in his direction to order one, only to have a tall, frosted glass appear in front of me.
Ben grinned down at me. “You were ace, mate. It was a pleasure to finally see you in action.” He nodded to the beer. “Now enjoy that—you deserve it.” He looked around, his eyebrows knitted. “Where’s Jarod?”
“Taking his time.” That first taste was wonderful.
“Well, I’ll have a drink waiting for him when he makes an appearance. You’ve got yourself a good one there.”
I had to agree. I was still buzzing from the scene and its aftermath. Jarod had responded beautifully, and I’d meant every word about being proud of him. I felt like I could do anything.
“That was very impressive.” Thomas took the chair next to mine and relaxed into it.
I raised my glass in acknowledgment of his praise. Leo took the seat facing me.
“Oh, your skills are excellent,” Thomas added. “But I’m referring more to the rapport between you and Jarod. Considering how little time you’ve spent together, you seem to be in tune with each other.”
“I agree.” Leo was nodding. “And so we can get the formalities out of the way….” He extended his hand toward me, his face lit up in a broad smile. “Welcome to Collars & Cuffs.”
I shook his hand, feeling about ten feet tall. Thomas copied his actions. “Thank you,” I said sincerely. “But if I’m honest, that scene was nothing new for either of us. I’ve done similar scenes in the past, and Jarod too, with his former master. That’s really why we’re here.”
“Go on.” Thomas regarded me steadily.
I thought for a moment how best to put my desires into words. “I… I want to take Jarod to a place where he hasn’t been before. Where
I
haven’t been, if it comes down to it. Becoming members of the club is our chance to explore different things.” I studied my glass. “This is a new journey, for both of us. I want to take him somewhere that he wouldn’t be able to reach on his own.”
Thomas’s eyes shone. “That’s a very good way of putting it. To those who know little or nothing of BDSM, I know it can seem like one partner dominating another, but the reality is so much more intimate than that. You’re talking about a connection, both physical and sensual.”
“Yes.” I nodded vehemently. Thomas was echoing my thoughts.
“Think back to your scene,” Leo added. “You need to be able to communicate with each other, and we’re not just talking verbal.
That’s
how such a connection comes about, when you trust each other, when you can read each other’s reactions, not only the physical but the mental ones too.”
“And wanting to try new things is a good way to build on what you already have.” Thomas tilted his head. “You mentioned when we first met that both of you would like to use sounds.”
“Yes. That’s one of our goals.”
Thomas rubbed a finger over his chin. “Well, how about if I train you on how to use them?” I straightened instantly, and he held up his finger. “I should add at this point that my purpose is not entirely selfless. I’d like to train you to use them to such a degree that you would feel comfortable delivering training on their use to other members.”
“Wait—back up a minute.” Leo leaned across the table toward his business partner, his eyes sparkling. “Training Doms—you? You’re going to take up training again?” He seemed absolutely delighted.
Thomas speared him with an intent gaze. “Oh, hush.”
Leo rubbed his hands together and cackled. “I
knew
you’d missed it, old man.”
Thomas heaved a sigh. “The truth is, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. It’s good that we have demonstrations here, but maybe we need to rethink that. Recently I did a search on the Internet for BDSM, and I have to admit, what I found out there scares me.”
“What do you mean?” I put down my glass and stared at him, my stomach clenching.
Thomas removed his glasses and cleaned them with a cloth. “There’s a lot of misinformation about BDSM. Then it occurred to me that we’re gaining new members all the time. A lot of them come to us with preconceived ideas. We should be training them. We should be showing them examples of good practice. Oh, I know you can pick up a lot, just from standing around and watching a scene, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’d liked to deliver training on
everything
that appears in our contracts.” He put his glasses back on and stared at Leo. “Damn it, I was doing this when you first walked into that club, nineteen years ago.”
“And you were damn good at it.” Leo’s face glowed. “If you want to do this, I for one won’t stand in your way. It’ll be good to see you in action again.” He tilted his head. “Although, how will Peter feel about this?”
Thomas’s smile was reassuring. “We’ve already discussed it. I’ve told him that any training I undertake will be with either the Dom, or Dom and sub present, and that I’ll be there mostly to give instructions, not to take part.” His smile widened. “Do you know what he said? ‘It’s okay, Sir. I know who holds your heart.’” The look of love in those green eyes made my chest tighten.
“Sir?”
I turned to find Jarod standing by my chair, looking relaxed. I beamed. “There you are.”
Leo and Thomas both rose to their feet and shook his hand, offering him congratulations on our scene and welcoming him into the club. There was an air of contentment about him that was very attractive.
“We’ll leave you to talk,” Thomas said with a smile, and stepped away from the table. Jarod made as if to kneel by my side, but I gestured to the chair.
“Sit, pet.” When he’d done as instructed, I caught hold of his hand. “Feeling more human?”
He chuckled. “My idea of resting didn’t come off. I had a few visitors.” Then he smiled. “Congratulations, Sir. I told you they’d be impressed.”
“And so they were, but by
both
of us, pet.” I told him about Thomas’s offer to train me on the use of sounds. “Do you like that idea?”
He nodded. “I’ve seen videos where sounds were used. I’ve often wondered how it would feel.”
I chuckled. “You’re about to find out.” Something struck me. “Who were your visitors?”
“Some of the subs I met last week. They came to tell me what they thought of our scene. And speaking of them….” He gazed at me. “I’ve asked them to spend a night at my house, so we can get to know each other.” He licked his lips nervously.
“I take it no Doms are allowed,” I said after a moment. Jarod gave a start, and I knew I’d hit the nail on the head. “I don’t mind, pet.” Privately I was pleased to see him bonding with his fellow submissives, a thing that would never have happened at the previous club. “Well, make sure you have plenty of food in. It’s a good thing we cleared out the fridge during our last visit; can you imagine how that would smell?”
He shuddered. “I’d rather not.”
“When are you all thinking of doing this?”
“We haven’t decided on a date yet. Maybe in a few weeks’ time.”
I grinned. “If the weather’s a bit warmer, you could all sit around that fire pit out back and toast marshmallows.”
Jarod stared at me for a few seconds before snorting. “Now I feel about six years old.” But he was smiling. “We could have a barbecue if it’s mild enough, though. And with five bedrooms there’ll be plenty of space for everyone.” He looked so happy that it made my throat tighten just to see it.
This was what Jarod needed—new friends, a new family. And happy was a damn good look on him.
Jarod
IT WAS
no good. I couldn’t sleep, not with Eli still stretched out under a blanket on the couch downstairs. Now and again I heard an occasional snore, but then all would fall silent. A glance at the clock told me it was nearly two in the morning. I climbed out of bed and padded down the stairs to peer around the living room door.
Eli had moved since I’d placed him there, after helping him to negotiate his way around the furniture. He’d kicked off the blanket, his arm flung across his eyes as if to blot out whatever he was seeing inside his head.